some thoughts re Chrysler loan, et al.

[ashling]

As I recall, every Republican alive told us that this was a waste of money yada yada yada.

Now that GM & Chrysler have saved and/or created thousands of jobs, and Chrysler has paid back their govt. loan with interest years ahead of schedule, who do you think was the first person on the floor of the House of Representatives touting the success and even ending her monologue with "imported from Detroit"?
The first person recognized by Boehner was , of course, a Republican singing the praises of the American auto worker. :puke:

All this as Eric Cantor demands that any money for thew Missouri disaster be paid for by spending cuts.

Since Cantor and his gang assumed that all of the money lent to Chrysler was gone and would never be paid back, it follows that they should view this as found money ... enough to cover the aid for Mo.

Additionally, the success of these programs illustrates a concept that is foreign to Cantor's gang that:

Standing behind the American people in their time of need is always a successful venture!



you may return to your regularly scheduled DU. :)


sorry , this is not very well said. I spent all afternoon in the emergency room ... and I can't find my glasses

[Old and In the Way]

1. Republicans have made selling this country short their vision of the future.

The rest of us have other priorities. Next time the Republicans are right about any of their economic ideas...that will be news.

[Hannah Bell]

2. "saved and/or created thousands of jobs" = bs.

[AlabamaLibrul]

3. Imported from Detroit sounded cuter than Imported from Mexico

that's a popular assembly line for Chrysler's stuff.

It didn't create jobs -- what it saved and how it did it is dubious. All of the union shit that went on -- I know with GM, I'm not sure of the details with Chrysler -- basically kept jobs at any cost and hurt workers. Any "new jobs" being "created" at all are the result of contract buyouts being replaced with younger, healthier flesh for half the cost and none of the benefits.

How many times do we have to play this game? Great, they paid it back, but how many more times? This isn't the first time as some will remember. What came of it last time? 30 years of too many shitty designed, cost-cutting, platform-sharing cars (which is NOT demonizing unions, or labor, or anything of the sort) and 30 years later, playing the same game with a lot more zeros attached.

They seem to be very bad at being able to run a company and hold a profit for a statistically significant amount of time without tying up the entire American economy, so maybe we should nationalize them. Skip the multimillion dollar CEO -- apparently they never quite make it there on the "profit for shareholders" part, why start now?

[eilen]

6. $14/hr jobs in Chrysler plants

But the supply chain? They make even less.

[divvy]

4. well, there still is a Chrysler and a GM; that is NOT b.s.

President Obama did the right thing. Our country would be worse off without them

[MrDiaz]

5. so what

We are going to lose money on the GM shares, which are likely to be sold early summer. And alot of that bailout money went to banks, which i guess you have no problem with either?

[IndyPragmatist]

7. FYI, they didn't, nor will they, pay ALL of it back

But I am actually surprised that Chrysler has done so well. I remember looking at that company 2 years ago and thinking they didn't have a chance in hell. Their cars have no appeal to me, or most people, but they do have a niche, and that's working.

Although, this isn't the first time we have had to bailout Chrysler. Hopefully it is the last.